Irrigation trail line drain valves

ABSTRACT

A trail line press-in drain valve has a pair of press-in tubes having tapered ends and joined to tapered ends of an enlarged drain tube having a hole in its side in which a check valve is mounted. The press-in tubes are pressed into trail line pipe sections to drain the trail line when the trail line extends downhill. A similar press-in drain valve connects a trail line shoe to a trail line.

Umted States Patent 1191 1111 3,792,71 1

Bedard Feb. 19, 1974 [54] IRRIGATION TRAIL LINE DRAIN VALVES 2,649,1058/1953 Stout et a1. 285/5 X [75] Inventor: Joseph A. Bedard, Eugene,Oreg. FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS v AssigneeZ lreco Industries, Inc.Eugene, O g 202,214 6/1956 Australia 285/5 Filed: 1972 PrimaryExaminerM. Henson Wood, Jr. [21] Appl. No.: 298,334 AssistantExaminer-John J. Love Attorney, Agent, or Firm-K1larqu1st, Sparkman,Campbell, Leigh, Hall & Whinston [52] U.S. CI 137/217, 239/111, 239/212,

285/5 57 ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl. ..E1)3c 1/10, Fl6k 45/00 1 [58] Field ofSearch n 285/5, 239, 370, 397, 345; A tra11 hne press-1n dram valve apan of press-1n tubes havlng tapered ends and jomed t0 tapered II(.IS ofan enlarged dram tube havlng a hole 1n 1ts s1de 1n 12 1;821:1011; in 'zezz 51 1 11 1ep1p 1n oram e UNITED STATES PATENTS trail line when thetrail line extends downhilL A simi- 3,603,508 9/1971 Ingram 239/212 |arpresHn drain valve connects a trail line Shoe to 3 3,281,081 10/1966PLIHCII trail m 1 585,014 6/1897 Wenzel et a]. 285/239 3,516,609 6/1970Gheen et a1. 239/212 2 Claims, 41 Drawing Figures PA-TENTEB FEB] 9197446 56 44 nse IRRIGATION TRAIL LINE DRAIN VALVES DESCRIPTION Thisinvention relates to improved irrigation trail line drain valves, andmore particularly to press-in drain valves.

An object of the invention is to provide improved irrigation trail linevalves.

Another object of the invention is to provide press-in drain valves.

A further object of the invention is to provide a short pipe sectionhaving a drain valve therein and adapted to be placed in a trail line atthe front end of the portion of the trail line touching the ground.

Another object of the invention is to provide a press-in drain valveadapted to be pressed into an end of a trail line and also fitting inand keyed to a sprinkler carrying shoe.

In the drawings:

FIG. I is a fragmentary, perspective view of an irrigation moveincluding trail line press-in drain valves forming embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional view taken along line 22 ofFIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, vertical, sectional view taken along line 33 ofFIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, sectional view taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 1.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, there is shown therein, anirrigation move including wheels rotatable on a main pipe 12 and traillines 14 connected to the pipe by rotary couplings 16 for supplyingwater under pressure to the trail lines and to sprinklers 18 carried bythe couplings l6, trail line sprinklers 20 being supplied by the trailline. Each trail line (only one being shown) includes a forward pipesection 22 detachably connected to a T-coupling 24 carried by thecoupling 16, and also includes a rear pipe section 26 connected to apress-in drain valve 27 forming one embodiment of the invention. Asprinkler drag shoe 28 is connected to the other end of the press-indrain valve 27, and carries a riser 32 on which the sprinkler 20 ismounted. A press-in drain valve 34 forming an alternate embodiment ofthe invention connects together the trail line pipe sections 22 and 26.

The press-in drain valve 34 (FIGS. 2 and 3) includes end press-in tubes40 and 42 brazed to an enlarged central tube 44 having tapered ends 46and 48 receiving tightly the tubes 40 and 42, respectively. The tubes 40and 42 have tapered end portions 50 facilitating pressing thereof intothe pipe sections 22 and 26, the tubes 40 and 42 expanding the pipesections somewhat as they are pressed in and preventing rotation andlongitudinal movement of the pipe sections relative to the tubes 40 and42. The central tube 44 has a cylindrical central portion having a hole52 therein through which a stem 54 of a known pressure responsive checkvalve 56 extends loosely. When there is sprinkling pressure in the trailline, head 58 of the valve is pressed against the cylindrical inner wallof the central portion of the tube 44 to close off the hole 52. When thesprinkling pressure is cut off, the head 58 opens the hole 52 and waterdrains out of the hole 58 to facilitate moving the line move. Theposition of the valve 56 and hole 52 at the side of the valve 34elevates it off the ground to tend to prevent clogging of the hole withdirt or debris. The trail line 14 extends downwardly and rearwardly fromthe main pipe 12 and normally touches the ground about halfway from thepipe 112 to the drag shoe fitting 28. Preferably the drain valve 34 ispositioned at the point the trail line first touches the ground so that,if the valve 27 and shoe 28 are uphill from the valve 34 when drainingis needed prior to starting the move, the valve 34 drains the entiretrail line.

The trail line drain valve 27 (FIG. 4) is identical to the trail linedrain valve 34 but also includes a keying lug 60 splined in a slot 62 inthe shoe 28 and trapped in the slot 62 by a releasable split band 64.End tube 66 fits sealingly in seal 68 in the shoe 28. A valve 70 likethe valve 56 closes a hole in the assembly 27 only when there isoperating pressure in the drain line. The shoe has a shoe portion orskid 72. The valve 27 drains the trail line whenever the line is to bemoved and the shoe is not higher than the valve 27. A front tube 80 likethe tube is pressed into the pipe section 26 to both key the valve 27 tothe pipe section 26 and secure the valve against longitudinal movementrelative to the pipe sectron.

The lug 60 of the valve 27 is positioned far enough from the tapered endof the tube 66 that a sufficient length of the tube 66 can be pressedinto a pipe section to form a good joint so that the valve 22 can beused in place of the valve 34 to connect two pipe sections together. Inother words, the valve 27 could have a lug like the lug 60 withoutinterfering .at all with its effectively connecting the two pipesections together.

The valve 27 may have two horizontal openings like the opening 52, thepositioned at diametrically opposite sides of the enlarged centralportion, and a second valve being positioned therein. With thisarrangement, the drainage is twice as fast, and both valves 70 arepositioned up off the ground.

What is claimed is:

1. In a trail line press-in drain valve,

a central tubular member having a central portion of a predetermineddiameter having a lateral drain opening and end portions tapering to adiameter smaller than said predetermined diameter,

a pair of end tubes smaller in diameter than said predetermineddiameterand joined to the end portions of the central tubular member,

the outer ends of the end tubes being tapered to facilitate pressing theend tubes into trail line sections,

and pressure responsive valve means carried by the central tubularmember and closing the opening when the central tubular member has waterunder sprinkling pressure therein and opening the opening when thecentral tubular :member has water therein under a lower pressure.

2. The drain valve of claim 1 including a splining and thrusttransmitting lug on one of the end tubes.

1. In a trail line press-in drain valve, a central tubular member havinga central portion of a predetermined diameter having a lateral drainopening and end portions tapering to a diameter smaller than saidpredetermined diameter, a pair of end tubes smaller in diameter thansaid predetermined diameter and joined to the end portions of thecentral tubular member, the outer ends of the end tubes being tapered tofacilitate pressing the end tubes into trail line sections, and pressureresponsive valve means carried by the central tubular member and closingthe opening when the central tubular member has water under sprinklingpressure therein and opening the opening when the central tubular memberhas water therein under a lower pressure.
 2. The drain valve of claim 1including a splining and thrust transmitting lug on one of the endtubes.